We are now six days into the Audubon Christmas Bird Count season and I have finished my third count. Yesterday we saw 58 species of birds in our territory on Kern County's Buena Vista CBC and with everyone's effort the preliminary tally was 115 species. I have compiled this count every year except one since I created the circle in 1989. I originally conceived this count to bring attention to an area filled with rich history of bird diversity that had suffered huge changes with the draining of the original 34,000 acre Buena Vista Lake.

The Southern San Joaquin Valley had close to one-million acres of lakes and marshes when gold was discovered in the state. Within 12 years of California's statehood these rich wild waterways began to be drained. Soon the pelican and many other nesting birds would be gone. Could we find a way to reverse this loss and restore the habitat? We didn't know but we hoped that data from the CBC would help.

This was meant to be no more than a ten year effort. Now with the twenty-third year finished, so much for plans, that is the nature of birding. Begin with a flourish and keep going because we love being in nature. Birds are such amazingly vibrant creatures, I feel truly blessed to have added some unique data to the international 113 year effort to document bird abundance and distribution.

Over the past 23 years, in part because our efforts, a conservation outcome has happened on approximately 28,000 acres with the landowners continuing to use their land productively while setting aside habitat for wildife. A win for the birds and a win for the people.